2016 NCAA tournament: How the bracket was built

 March Madness is finally here! Since the brackets were revealed on Sunday night, there has been a lot of talk about what the Selection committee did wrong. While I can't sit here and defend some of the decisions they made in their seed list, like which teams made it into the tourney and which teams didn't, I can take a look at the seed list and piece together how they built the bracket from that. 

Typically, the question of "did the committee create match-ups for ratings purposes" gets brought up every year. While most assume that is the case, it Ideally never happens like that. Take for example, the potential Indiana/Kentucky match-up in the second round. By following the bracketing rules, it's easy to see that this was not created for ratings or anything like that, but just by the rules and how they are set up. There is one puzzling case, however, and that lies with yet another potential Virgina & Michigan State match-up which I discuss below.

I won't give an in-depth description of the bracketing rules here, as this will already be a long-enough post, but anyone interested can read them here. Today I will go through the seed lines 1-8/the top 32 teams on the seed list. Before the games start on Thursday, I will go through seeds 9-16, so stay tuned for that! On to the bracket building!

KANSAS - Sent to closest Region (Chicago and Louisville almost equidistant apart - committee opted to send them to Louisville) Not sure why they did this as Louisville is closer to Virginia and would have made more sense for them. The only reason I can come up with is that the committee realized that Michigan State (the top 2 seed) would be sent to Chicago. Perhaps they tried to avoid the #1 overall seed facing the top #2 seed in the regional final? Sent to closest pod site (Des Moines)

NORTH CAROLINA - Sent to closest remaining region (Philadelphia). Sent to closest pod site (Raleigh)

VIRGINIA - Sent to closest remaining Region (Chicago). Sent to closest pod site (Raleigh- site now full)

OREGON - Sent to last remaining Region (Anaheim). Sent to closest pod site (Spokane)

MICHIGAN STATE - Sent to closest Region (Chicago). Sent to closest pod site (St. Louis)

OKLAHOMA - Can't be sent to Chicago because of Kansas (same conference). Sent to closest remaining Region (Anaheim). Sent to closest pod site (Oklahoma City)

VILLANOVA - Can't be sent to Philadelphia (Played 3 home games at regional site). Sent to last remaining region (Louisville). Sent to closest pod site (Brooklyn)

XAVIER - Sent to last remaining region (Philadelphia) Sent to closest pod site (St. Louis - site now full)

WEST VIRGINIA - Can't be sent to Louisville because of Kansas (same conference) or Anaheim because of Oklahoma (same conference).  Sent to closest remaining region (Philadelphia). Sent to closest pod site (Brooklyn - site now full).

MIAMI (FL) - Can't be sent to Philadelphia because of UNC (same conference). Can't be sent to Chicago because of Virginia (same conference). Sent to closest remaining region (Louisville). Sent to closest pod available (Raleigh, St. Louis, and Brooklyn sites already full – sent to Providence)

UTAH – Can’t be sent to Anaheim because of Oregon (same conference). Sent to last remaining region (Chicago). Sent to closest pod site (Denver).

TEXAS A&M – Sent to last remaining region (Anaheim). Sent to closest pod site (Oklahoma City – site now full).

DUKE – Can’t be sent to Philadelphia because of North Carolina (same conference). Can’t be sent to Chicago because of Virginia (same conference). Can’t be sent to Louisville because of Miami (same conference). Must be sent to only remaining region (Anaheim). Sent to closest pod site available (Raleigh, Brooklyn, St. Louis all full – sent to Providence – site now full).

CALIFORNIA – Can’t be sent to Chicago because of Utah (same conference). Anaheim is already filled by Duke, but Cal couldn’t play there anyways because of Oregon (same conference). Sent to closest remaining region (Louisville). Sent to closest pod site (Spokane – site now full)

KENTUCKY – Anaheim already filled by Duke, but couldn’t be sent here anyways because of Texas A&M (same conference). Kentucky would have been sent to Louisville but Iowa State must be in a different region than fellow conference members Kansas (Louisville), West Virginia (Philadelphia), or Oklahoma (Anaheim) so Iowa State must be sent to Chicago leaving Kentucky to be sent to the last remaining region (Philadelphia). Sent to closest remaining pod site (Des Moines – site now full)

IOWA ST. (See Kentucky) Sent to Chicago. Sent to last remaining pod site (Denver).

Note: 5 seeds must be placed in same 1^st/2^nd round sites as the 4 seeds. Those sites are Denver, Des Moines, Spokane, and Providence.

INDIANA – Sent to closest pod site (Des Moines) which feeds into the Philadelphia regional.

PURDUE – Because Baylor played Kansas 3 times during the regular season they cannot meet until the Elite Eight, so they must be placed in a different region. Baylor also cannot be placed as the 5 seed with Iowa State as the 4 because they met twice in the regular season. This leaves only Providence for Baylor. Providence was the closest remaining site for Purdue – now sent to next closest site (Denver) which feeds into the Chicago regional.

MARYLAND – because Baylor must be place in Providence, Maryland sent to last remaining site (Spokane) which feeds into Louisville regional.

BAYLOR – (see Purdue) sent to Providence which feeds into the Anaheim regional.

Note: 6 seeds must be placed in same 1^st/2^nd round sites as the 3 seeds. Those sites are Oklahoma City, Providence, Brooklyn, and Denver.

TEXAS – Sent to closest pod site (Oklahoma City) which feeds into the Anaheim regional. Oklahoma is the 2 seed in this region so the teams could meet in the Sweet Sixteen, but since they only played twice in the regular season/conference tournament, it’s allowed.

NOTRE DAME – Sent to the closest remaining pod site (Brooklyn) which feeds into the Philadelphia regional.

ARIZONA – Closest remaining pod site is Denver. Utah is the 3 seed in that pod and the teams played only once in the regular season/conference tournament so this would technically be allowed, but the committee opted against this and sent them to Providence which feeds into the Louisville regional.

SETON HALL – Sent to last remaining pod site (Denver) which feeds into the Chicago regional.

Note: 7 seeds must be placed in same 1^st/2^nd round sites as the 2 seeds. Those sites are St. Louis (twice), Oklahoma City, and Brooklyn.

WISCONSIN – Sent to closest pod site (St. Louis). Michigan State and Xavier are both 2 seeds in St. Louis and because Wisconsin has played Michigan State twice, they cannot be in the same pod. Therefore, Wisconsin was sent to the other St. Louis pod featuring Xavier, which feeds into the Philadelphia regional.

DAYTON – Sent to closest pod site (St. Louis) which feeds into the Chicago regional.

IOWA – Brooklyn and Oklahoma City both about the same distance from Iowa. Committee opted to send them east to Brooklyn to make travel easier for Oregon St. Brooklyn feeds into the Louisville regional.

OREGON ST. – Sent to last remaining pod site (Oklahoma City) which feeds into the Anaheim regional.

Note: 8 seeds must be placed in the same 1^st/2^nd round sites as the 1 seeds. Those sites are Raleigh (twice), Des Moines, and Spokane.

TEXAS TECH – Can’t be sent to closest pod site (Des Moines) because of Kansas – the teams played twice in regular season. Could be sent to either of the Raleigh pods or Spokane. Committee opted to send them to Raleigh in Virginia’s pod which feeds into the Chicago Regional. Honestly, I’m not sure why they chose to send them to this pod, sometimes it’s just a judgement call.

COLORADO – Can’t be sent to Spokane because of Oregon (both teams played twice in regular season). Sent to next closest pod site (Des Moines) which feeds into the Louisville regional.

USC – Can’t be sent to Spokane because of Oregon (both teams played twice in the regular season). Sent to only remaining site (Raleigh). Because Texas Tech was sent to the Raleigh Pod with Virginia, USC was sent to the pod with North Carolina which feeds into the Philadelphia regional.

SAINT JOSEPH'S – Sent to last remaining pod site (Spokane) which feeds into the Anaheim regional.

As you can probably see, geography plays the biggest role in determining where to send teams and the individual match-ups that that creates. Stay tuned for the rest of the seed lines tomorrow!